


baby come home

by strangewolfe (orphan_account)



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Gen, IT'S VERY SAD, here have all of the sads, i still have no idea how to tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-23
Updated: 2015-11-23
Packaged: 2018-05-03 00:48:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5270279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/strangewolfe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>afterwards, when he'd stopped crying and they were just rocking back and forth to some familiar tune, he'd say, "i'm sorry i ruined your shirt."</p>
<p>and she'd say, "it's all right."</p>
            </blockquote>





	baby come home

_The interview passes in a blur, and when she's allowed to leave, she plods numbly out of the room to rejoin the others. Chris stands up, intending to talk to her, but she gives him a look and he backs off. She slides heavily into a chair, ignoring the others' attempts to pull her into the conversation. As she leans back against the chair, gazing unseeingly at the ceiling, she realizes, a chill running down her spine, how lucky they all are to have survived through the night._

_All except one._

* * *

 

She rang the doorbell, once, twice, and on the third ring, he opened the door. She choked down the gasp that threatened to rise up her throat, setting her jaw and looking up at his pale, sickly, skeletal figure. He looked so frail that it seemed that even the slightest breeze would force him to crumple helplessly to the ground, and the bags under his hollow eyes looked like bruises. He gazed at her so emptily it made her want to step back and run, because this wasn't Josh, this couldn't be Josh, but she didn't, and stepped forward instead.

"Sam," he said, no more than a breath.

"Jesus, you look like hell," she said quietly, voice barely above a whisper.

"So do you," he replied hoarsely, sounding tired as fuck as he glanced pointedly at her messy, unwashed hair and tear-stained cheeks.

"Can I come in?"

He moved backwards to let her in.

"I brought you something to eat," she said, navigating through the house with purpose. She knew her way around the Washington mansion—how could she not, after so many years spending almost all of her time with the siblings?—and quickly found her way to the living room, Josh following behind her as silently as a ghost. She set his food down on the coffee table, with Josh hovering uncertainly beside her. She looked up and gave him a gentle smile, and he seemed to relax slightly. She skirted around the table towards the couch, holding her own food in her hands, and sat down with one leg tucked underneath her. She glanced up at him.

"Eat," she said, and he obeyed, picking up his food and ravenously digging in. She waited a moment, watching him eat, stomach twisting as she glanced at his thin body, before turning her attention to her own food and tried not to think about the twins.

That was nearly impossible, however, and soon she found herself setting her half-eaten food down on the table, leaning back on the couch and letting her eyes wander around the room. It was difficult to accept that they could be d— gone, (they can't be dead, they can't be dead) that they wouldn't walk in any second now and they'd be back to how they used to be, Beth with her blunt ways and sense of humor that could rival Josh's, gentle, kind, naive Hannah with her soft-spoken observations and her ability to cheer them up whenever they needed to. She wanted to believe that they were still alive, but it had been weeks now. Despite the fact that they knew the mountain like the back of their hands, they couldn't have survived up there for this long. It was so fucking unfair that she wanted to cry, she wanted to let the resentment she felt for the partakers of the prank and the guilt she harbored for not having stopped it when she could sweep over her and carry her away, she wanted to stop being fucking strong, to be human, to—

"So why are you here?"

Josh's voice snapped her back to reality, and she whipped her head around to look at him. She hadn't started crying yet. Good. She straightened up and brushed her hair roughly away from her face.

"Because I'm your friend," she answered bluntly, "and friends show up on your doorstep unannounced, because that's what friends do."

To her surprise, he smiled, no more than a brief twitch of his lips, and then it was gone. "You did that a lot, didn't you?" he said absently, and she knew he was thinking about the numerous times she would appear at the door, asking for the twins.

She decided to steer clear of dangerous waters. "Still do," she replied evasively, moving a little closer to him. He scooted towards her, seemingly without realizing it.

"You would come looking for them," he continued, unaware of Sam's attempt to avoid that subject, "and then you'd run off somewhere to play with them, or you'd stay and completely ignore my existence"—she tried not to snort at that, she really did—"while you guys had fun playing board games, or talking about school, or—" He stopped, and their shoulders were almost touching now. "I miss them," he whispered, looking down at his hands, folded in his lap.

_I miss them_ _._

Right fucking then she wanted to break down and cry, to pummel him with his fists and scream,  _I miss them, too, I miss them, too!_ , to confess how tired she was, how broken she was, that she wasn't perfect, that she didn't want to share their burdens anymore, didn't want to hold them up any longer—

But she didn't. Instead, she wrapped her arms around him, held him close. "I know," she said, and he buried his face in her shoulder and sobbed.

Afterwards, when he'd stopped crying and they were just rocking back and forth to some familiar tune, he'd say, "I'm sorry I ruined your shirt."

And she'd say, "It's all right."

* * *

 

_She remembers it all with grief clogging up her throat, rendering her unable to speak through the shimmering veil of tears in front of her eyes. Despite the hot tears running down her face, she can't help smiling at the memory, and mourns him again, mourns their friendship, mourns what they could have been._

**Author's Note:**

> title is from jet pack blues by fall out boy.
> 
> if you wanna talk about until dawn, my tumblr is strangewolfe.


End file.
